Poor admin and assumption one size fits all
My initial impression of clarity wealth was a very nice and agreeable organisation then problems occurred. I found they were unwilling to either admit mistakes had happened and work with me to resolve or explain their reasoning it was we are always right and don’t need to explain.
1. The advisor and the second person with him (it was never clear if this was a trainee or another advisor) were adamant I should start taking my final salary pension 4 years early knowing there was a 4% per year penalty rather than use other savings I had available. I really was not keen on this it went against everything I’d previously heard. I went away and calculated the loss I believe I would have suffered and asked him to justify his advice he initially tried to blame me for not asking to confirm this advice in the previous meeting which I had and told him I had. He then backpedalled and said he couldn’t advise on final salary pensions. I would have thought this would have been the time to point me in the direction of someone who could advise on something so important.
2. The projection given to me when analysed was that I would spend every penny I had in ISA’s easy access accounts etc before touching the PPP for drawdown that clarity was taking a 1% yearly fee from. Also, I had to go through him to get permission to get my own money on drawdown so should I have had an unexpected expense maybe a car or vets bill I would have had nothing in reserve to pay it with. When I went back and said I wasn’t happy with all my capital gone he said oh you could change this and entered figures into a program neither my partner or I could understand projected on the wall. At some point he blamed the other person for doing this. My understanding is once your capital is gone and you’re not working then that’s too late you cannot bring it back. My partner asked about the implications if I wanted to give my son a lump sum to buy a house in the future as pulling a lump sum as drawdown in one go would attract a big tax implication this was brushed aside with no explanation.
3. The advice was to combine 4 pensions I had into one Aviva PPP administrated by Clarity on a 1% yearly fee to which I agreed as I was told it would make more capital long term and overall lower fees than having 4 separate pension pots. I received an email from the advisor confirming all the transactions had gone ahead and all 4 pensions were now invested in the Aviva PPP. They hadn’t I knew this as one of the smaller pot providers had been in touch with me and said clarity wealth repeatedly would not respond to their emails or phone calls eventually after they’d called me several times I told them to call a halt to the transfer. Over 2 months after sending the email confirming all transfers were done the advisor rang me when he realised. I told him we needed a meeting over this issue the final salary pension and the projection of spending all my reserve cash needed to be discussed as I wasn’t happy with clarity wealth. I explained what the pension provider had told me about the clarity administration not responding to them he denied this saying ridiculous not even that he would look into what had happened. I had already paid in excess of £6K for the 3 main pensions to be transferred to the Aviva PPP so I asked because of what had happened for the 2.25% fee to be waived on this very small pension which I believe was reasonable . This was denied out of hand no negotiation or even consulting his manager it felt then that it was just get as much from the client as possible. I actually kept this small pension running on its own and in a year, it has risen 41% so I’m actually glad now it didn’t transfer.
4. My partner tried to establish what proactive movement of funds was actually been carried out for the 1% yearly fee trying to compare with St James place and hargreaves landowner that she dealt with for comparison . The answers coming back were very evasive and contradictory but it seemed that there was a yearly client clarity wealth meeting but largely the funds were set up as part of the 2.25% transfer fee then just left to run regardless of how they were performing.
This was not a situation in which I felt comfortable continuing to be a client of Clarity wealth. It may suit others but it was clear my individual financial situation was not been looked at as my partner summed up it was one size fits all.
I told the advisor I would be leaving as a client because of all the issues he didn’t understand this no one had left before he said. I paid clarity wealth I consider a lot of money the service was nowhere near what it should have been but more importantly there was no acknowledging things had gone wrong and a willingness to compromise and work with me. I no longer had faith in their administration or the advisor so I believe giving 3 stars is the correct score